TFC captain Bradley believes the Reds have the chance to be more dynamic despite losing Giovinco and Vazquez

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif — Toronto FC captain Michael Bradley was talking about “the perfect storm” on Thursday at the team hotel, though the discussion had nothing to do with the rain that flooded parts of southern California earlier this week.

Bradley was looking back at last season and contemplating how he plans on using the disappointing second half (or MLS portion) of the 2018 season as motivation for the 2019 campaign.

“A lot of things (fell apart) in a perfect storm type of way last year,” he said. “That’s not an excuse.

“In the end, we weren’t good enough in the league on enough days and you finish where you finish deservedly. Nobody will hide from that. But when you look at what we did in February, March and April, in terms of the (CONCACAF Champions League games), in terms of the travel, the altitude, the field at BMO — which took a real toll just in terms of how heavy and how taxing that was — it just meant that by the time we got to the end of Champions League (losing the final to Guadalajara in a penalty shootout on April 25) we were decimated. We were so thin, we had so many injuries and because of Champions League, we had put ourselves behind the eight ball in the (MLS) and we were forced to write off a few games in the league early on.

“And so it just meant that we were chasing it the entire season instead of being able to look at things one game at a time. Because we were so far behind the eight ball, there was this constant mentality of, ‘Wow, if we win the next three then we’ll back close to where we need to be.’ And when you start having to do that, it takes a real toll.”

Bradley acknowledged that after winning so many trophies in 2017, including the MLS Cup, it was “damned hard” to go through last season, though TFC did make the Champions League final and won the Canadian championship. But the Princeton, N.J. native said not qualifying for the MLS playoffs after winning the title the year before was a kick in the gut.

“When you have a 2 1/2 years like the 2 1/2 years that we had up until (the second half of 2018) of consistent success, of stepping on the field every single week feeling like you were going to win, of playing in big games, playing in finals. When you go through a period like that, then sure, that’s not easy for anybody,” he said.

“It’s miserable. But the mentality at this point is that we’ve certainly learned a lot of things from it, we’ve learned a lot about ourselves. We’ve learned a lot about what we need to be about, we learned a lot about who needs to be with us. We’ve learned a lot about what it will take to get things back to the level that we all expect. But I still feel strongly that we’re going to put things back on the right track this year and the MLS part of last season will be nothing but a blip on the radar.”

The Reds lost all-time leading goal scorer Sebastian Giovinco and versatile midfielder Victor Vazquez in the off-season, but Bradley believes that TFC can be better this year.

“Our team will be different. There’s no two ways about that,” he said. “You don’t lose guys like Seb and Victor and pretend that the team is going to be exactly the same. But that doesn’t mean worse. Not in any way. I think the idea is that we can be a little bit younger, be a little bit more dynamic. Play in a different way and ultimately play in a way where with time and with work, the ceiling for our team is even higher than it was before.

“On a personal level, I’m very excited because of the opportunity to be a part of building a new team in some ways, building a younger team, being able to do certain things tactically that we weren’t able to do before. I think that’s exciting,” Bradley continued.

“And that isn’t taking away anything from Seb or Victor or what happened over the last couple of years. Nobody’s more proud of everything that we did over the last few years than me. Nobody is more proud of what went into it, nobody is more proud of what we were about on some of the biggest days. But this is life. It’s sports. The game doesn’t stop for anybody.

“I think we all wish those guys the best. They’ll always be a part of the club’s history. But there’s no fun in looking back at this point. Sure, the things that we accomplished, the big nights that we all shared together, that part will stay with me, that part will stay with our fans forever. But the exciting part now is looking forward. The exciting part now is the opportunity to build and put together a new group of guys, a new team, that can play in a different way, in some ways do things that we couldn’t do before.

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